PICA. 351 



f l . Color chiefly blue. 



g l . Head with conspicuous crest. 



Cyanocitta. (Page 353.) 



g 1 . Head without crest Aphelocoma. (Page 355.) 



/*. Color chiefly green, with outer tail-feathers yellow. 



Xanthoura. (Page 358.) 



e 2 . Color dull slaty or grajdsh above, dull grayish or brownish 

 beneath, the head partly white in adults. (Young wholly 



dusky.) Perisoreus. (Page 358.) 



a 2 . Tail much shorter than wing; wing long and pointed, the primaries exceeding 

 longest secondaries by more than the length of the tarsus, the third, fourth, 

 and fifth quills longest. (Subfamily Corvince.') 



b l . Wing 9.00, or more; plumage entirely glossy black (in North American 

 species) ; bill compressed, much higher than broad. 



Corvus. (Page 360.) 

 6 2 . Wing less than 9.00; plumage mainly grayish or blue; bill cylindrical, 



scarcely or not at all higher than broad. 



c l . Nostrils concealed by an antrorse tuft of feathers ; color ash-gray, with 

 black on wings and tail, the latter mainly white, and secondaries 



broadly tipped with white Picicorvus. (Page 364.) 



c 2 . Nostrils wholly exposed ; color uniform dull blue, brighter on head. 



Cyanocephalus. (Page 364.) 



GENUS PICA CUVIER. (Page 350, pi. XCVIIL, fig. 2.) 



Species. 



COMMON CHARACTERS. Wings metallic greenish blue, vjfried with greenish or 

 violet (sometimes both), the inner webs of quills chiefly white ; tail rich metallic 

 green varied with bronze, purple, and violet near end ; scapulars, belly, sides, and 

 flanks pure white; other parts blackish. Adult: Head, neck, breast, back, tail- 

 coverts, and thighs deep black, the top of the head more or less distinctly glossed 

 with metallic greenish or bronzy. Young : Head, neck, etc., dull black, without 

 metallic gloss on crown. Nest of coarse, often thorny, sticks, lined with finer 

 twigs and rootlets, and protected by a loose canopy of coarse, often thorny, twigs, 

 the entrance through the latter on one side. Eggs 3-10, pale olive-buffy, dull 

 white, or very pale greenish, thickly speckled, clouded, sprinkled, or dashed with 

 brown-. 



a 1 . Bill deep black, and naked skin of orbital region blackish. 



b\ Feathers of throat without white beneath surface ; wing 6.90-7.55 (7.24), 

 tail 8.40-10.30 (9.36), exposed culmen 1.10-1.25 (1.21), tarsus 1.57-1.80 

 (1.68). Hob. Northern and central Europe. 



P. pica (LiNN.). Magpie. 1 



1 Corvus pica LINN., S. N. ed. 10, i. 1758, 106. Pica pica SHAEPE, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. iii. 1877, 62. 



